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Title: The Two Faces of Islam : The House of Sa'ud from Tradition to Terror by Stephen Schwartz ISBN: 0-385-50692-9 Publisher: Doubleday Pub. Date: 15 October, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.33 (33 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Something seems to be missing
Comment: While Schwartz's book presents the reader with logical and necessary questioning regarding the Saudi role in the war on terrorism, it's relations and influence in the Middle East, its role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, etc., I seriously question the validity of his claims against the Wahhabis, a group he depicts as the sole cause of agitation in the Muslim faith and the main opponents in Islam towards the West. All faults in Islam, according to Schwarts, stem from Wahhabism - a movement that he depicts as an organized institution but one realizes it must not be since he never describes its structure, heirarchy, etc. He also fails to clarfiy and elaborate on HOW Wahhabism has managed to exist - he tells why it emerged and how it gained momentum, but then never fully explains HOW it became a transnational movement and WHY people subscribed to it's version of Islam.
Criticisms aside, I must admit the book was an "eye opener" and should be a must-read for all those who think the Saudis are truely US allies.
Rating: 4
Summary: A unique and important book with some serious flaws
Comment: The Two Faces of Islam is a passionate, polemical book that attempts to refocus the war on terrorism on the Wahhabi branch of Islam, the officially established doctrine of that part of Arabia now under control by the House of Sa'ud, i.e. "Saudi" Arabia. Schwartz argues that the emerging dominance of Wahhabism within the Islamic world, buttressed by petrodollars and the Sa'uds strategic alliance with Western powers, has obscured the true, pluralistic, tolerant face of Islam with a dogmatic, oppressive, anti-intellectual, violent face of Islam. Schwartz has identified himself as a follower of a mystical, unitarian form of Sufi Islam. His political beliefs are difficult to pinpoint on the spectrum, but he was written articles for right-wing media like Frontpage and the Weekly Standard, and he has long been passionately opposed to the extreme left.
Like Schwartz's Islam, his book has two faces: one is an apologetic for Muhammad and traditional Islam, the other is his vigorous polemic against Wahhabism, Saudi Arabia, and its western benefactors. Both aspects of the book have faults. With regard to his apologetic, Schwartz is not always convincing to those of us with doubts about the notion that Islam "means peace." His defense of Muhammad is far more ambiguous than he realizes, and his dicussion of the less flattering aspects of Islamic rule, such as the dhimmi, are far from satisfying for anyone familiar with the subjects. I strongly disagree, however, with the notion that Schwartz has written this book to appeal to the "Islamophobic" crowd. ("Islamaphobia" is itself a suspect term often employed by groups like CAIR who front for radical Islam and want to shut down any rational discussion of Islamic theology or the extremists' global infrastructure). His book is, if anything, an admirable attempt to destroy what he sees as a catastrophic public identification of Wahhabism with Islam itself. Schwartz devotes a large portion of the book to discussing how the Sa'uds have used their resources and influence to present Wahhabism as "true" Islam all around the world.
The flaw of the second aspect is that Schwartz neglects to discuss the other possible sources of Arab-Islamic extremism, so focused as he is on pinning the tail on the Wahhabi camel. He does not satisfactorily consider, for example, the influence of secular ideologies such as pan-Arab socialism or Ba'athism. He also goes out of his way, unconvincingly, to absolve Shi'a Islam for any responsibility for Islamic radicalism. The most disturbing part of the book is when Schwartz attempts to have us believe that Ayatollah Khomeini was not such a bad guy after all, that he was really a mystic with benevolent Sufi tendencies, that he was just a victim of anti-Shi'a Wahhabi propaganda! I think the people of Iran would dissent from his view of the theocrats in Tehran. Thus his goal to wall off Wahhabism as the sole source of Islamic extremism go too far at times.
On the whole, the book deserves a wide readership and consideration. Despite its flaws, I have found this to be one of the most helpful and refreshingly unorthodox post-September 11 books (although Schwartz was ringing this bell long before that fateful day).
Rating: 5
Summary: This book is all too true
Comment: This book is all too true - it looks at the real issues of what is going on in today's world and especially the way in which Saudi-funded Wahhabism is altering the Muslim world globally. As Bernard Lewis points out, it is as if the US government owned all the oil revenues and used that to fund the Klu Klax Klan worldwide. We live in disturbing times! Christopher Catherwood, author of CHRISTIANS, MUSLIMS AND ISLAMIC RAGE
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Title: Hatred's Kingdom: How Saudi Arabia Supports the New Global Terrorism by Dore Gold ISBN: 0895261359 Publisher: Regnery Publishing Pub. Date: February, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: Wahhabism: A Critical Essay by Hamid Algar ISBN: 188999913X Publisher: Islamic Publications International Pub. Date: 10 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror by Bernard Lewis ISBN: 0679642811 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 25 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Sleeping With the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude by Robert Baer ISBN: 1400050219 Publisher: Crown Pub. Date: 15 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Militant Islam Reaches America by Daniel Pipes ISBN: 0393052044 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: 12 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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